Wait here

Do you ever feel like you’ll never get what you need to be happy? That you’ll forever be one step behind?

There’s always someone else that has that key thing you’ve been longing for. If you could just have their house, husband, job, hair, car, garage, or whatever it is, you’d be perfectly content and all would be right with the world.

I’ve been feeling that way lately about our inability to buy our own house. All I want is to settle into a spot knowing that I don’t have to move. I want to put down roots. I’d love to be able to paint whatever I want without the nagging thought that in a year or two I’ll have to paint it all back again. I want to re-do the bathroom, update the cabinets, and all kinds of other projects.

Even though we are finally making enough to technically move forward and buy a small home, we are held back by contract jobs. We are waitin on a job that has been in the works for my husband for three years.

Three years.

We’ve had to be patient and watch other people buy beautiful homes of their own for three years.

Waiting is one of the excruciating things we all have to experience in our daily lives. It is a frustrating position to be in – to be completely, or at least mostly, out of control. Our destiny seems to lie in the hands of others, and we have to sit by and hope they make the decision we want by the time we want. I think that’s why it’s so agonizing.

In our years of waiting, there has been a lot kicking and screaming. But I’ve learned that what you focus on during a time like this will determine what the season will look like. If your thoughts are always on the things you don’t have, the things you’re waiting on, you’re going to be pretty miserable. Everything you have will become a source of frustration and discouragement, because it’s not what you want. The dominant thought running through your mind will likely be, “Once I get _______ , everything will be set right.”

But things don’t make us happy.

I’ve found that joy and peace are rooted in seeking Christ alone.

About this time last year, we were in a position to buy a house. We even had an offer accepted. But there was no peace; it just didn’t feel right, and we had to back out. Looking back, I am thankful that we did not move forward on that home. Lovely as it was, it was not God’s timing.

God could see that Luke would change jobs just weeks later, that I would have one of the worst summers of my life, and that a whole lot would change with the new year. If we would have had our own way and made it happen, we wouldn’t have been able to follow the way He’s led us. It would have made life so much more difficult – not better. Not getting a house at that time was actually the Lord’s protection. It’s been extremely hard, but we’ve learned that God’s timing really is perfect. That alone is worth every day, month, and year of waiting.

And so, we continue to wait. But we are waiting in contentment, knowing that the Lord is looking out for us, and things will come into place at the right time.

Wherever you are in your journey and in your waiting – don’t put off setting your focus on Christ. Open your heart to His timing and goodness. Be willing to learn. Be willing to be wrong. And be willing to experience something new. Keep your eyes and spirit alert and watching for ways He’s going to make it all worth it.